An increase in enrolment in local schools means further funding for the Vernon School District.
The district saw an additional 172 students in the 2017/18 school year headcount for a total of 8,071 students, said district superintendent Joe Rogers at Wednesday’s board of education meeting.
“These numbers are preliminary, but they’re great,” Rogers said.
By the end of the week, the district will begin translating the headcount into full-time-equivalent (FTE) numbers to uncover the amount of additional funding the district will receive.
“We’re going to hope for $9,000 more for every FTE we’re up,” Rogers said. “If we’re up by 100, that’s a lot of money.”
French immersion programs also saw an increase, boasting the highest registration numbers this decade, Rogers said. The increased numbers prompted the French immersion round-table Rogers sat on to recommend that the board of education monitors 2018/19 French immersion registration numbers to determine if this year’s increase is an anomaly or the start of a trend.
Concern arose at the round-table regarding Seaton Secondary’s French immersion capacity if more space is created at the elementary level.
“There are more kids at Seaton now in French immersion than in English programming,” Rogers said. “It really was rather balanced where they (French immersion students) come from.”
The round-table also discussed teacher and parent preferences for French immersion programming, noting a strong preference for single-track over dual-track options.
“There was a lot of passion in the room about French immersion, and it was great,” Rogers said.
Teacher numbers increase
Mimicking enrolment, teacher and administrator numbers also saw an increase for the 2017/18 school year.
This year saw an increase of 54 total number of teachers, including substitutes.
“We’re in great shape right now. We know during the year people go on maternity leave and things happen, so we need to always continue getting (substitute teachers). We have lots of new teachers and we want to make sure they get off to the best start they can,” Rogers said, mentioning the district’s teacher mentoring program.
However, Vernon Teachers’ Association president Lisa LaBoucane and Canadian Union of Public Employees president Gray Boisvert raised concerns over a lack of help for special needs students.
“I feel we are failing when we come to special needs students,” Boisvert said. “We are going the wrong way.”
Secretary-treasurer Sterling Olson ensured that casual staff has been dispatched to mitigate the lack of aid and the district is looking into the problem.
“We do have some flexibility potential from the revenue side,” Olson said.
Rogers said the problem is on the district’s radar and that there will be more postings in due time.
